Nightwish Review

On Sunday, August 22nd I saw Nightwish perform at BBkings in New York City, NY.

I have decided to share my thoughts and opinions of the show with you, so feel free to read it.

In all honesty, there was so much that happened at this show that I couldn’t possibly remember every detail, though I wish I could. Nightwish came on stage and opened with Dark Chest of Wonders from the new album. Let me tell you right now. For those of you who didn’t like the album that much, after seeing certain songs performed live I think highly different of it. Since the songs lacked the orchestra, they felt more metal. I enjoyed hearing it because the songs were done well. The next song played was Planet Hell, which is also from the new album. I actually thought this was a good song off the new album. Hearing it live just blew me away. And the crowd too… it got so crazy the crowd broke through the barrier that kept the crowd from killing me while I was trying to take pictures. They even had two bouncers pushing it back to keep it from falling. A big highlight of the night was hearing them play Phantom of the Opera. This was just amazing. Towards the end of the song Tarja sung this solo similar to what was on the album, but wow, it definitely hit me. I literally had a chill up my spine. She went freaking high. I didn’t know she was even capable of such a note. As for the rest of the set list it included mostly songs from Wishmaster, Century Child, and, their latest effort, Once. It was a good mix of everything. They even played a Megadeth cover, Symphony of Destruction. This song was really brutally slaughtered by Nightwish, in a good way. Mind you that Tarja wasn’t singing and Marco was. First off I prefer Marco as a singer than Dave Mustain, but that’s my opinion of course. Some people love Mustain’s voice, and might find this performance of Symphony of Destruction an insult to Megadeth. I think they did a good job. Emppu even pulled a good solo. One thing I really enjoyed about the show was to see Tarja head banging and ‘windmilling’ with her hair. That’s something I don’t see often from female vocalists. The whole band in general had some good stage presence, even the drummer. He was doing some stick tricks, which probably nobody noticed, since they more were focused on Tarja. Last year I saw Nightwish and they weren’t nearly as good as they were this time. Part of this is because they had a more varied set list and better sound. I think the main part is that they are that little bit more experienced as a band. Also Marco is still new to the band and that one-year makes him and the band feel more comfortable with each other. The only negative was that they didn’t play anything from their first two records. Overall it was one of the best concerts I’ve been to, very positive crowd and great music.